The Decktet is a deck of cards with suits, ranks, and named images. There are ten ranks (Ace, 2, ..., 9, Crown) and six suits. Each Ace and Crown has one suit, so there are six of each. Each number card (2-9) has two suits, so there are three of each. Altogether, that makes for 36 cards.
It is what some people call a "game system", meaning that it is not designed for a specific game and you can do different things with it. There are several games that have been developed for it, with more in the works.
See: The Decktet homepage
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Quäsenbö
There have been a number of aborted Decktet games that started out as Game X played with the Decktet. If I found myself wishing I could just play the original game, without the extra curlycues of the Decktet, then that was death. Even though many of the games on the Decktet site have recognizable inspirations, I've only posted ones where the structure of the Decktet is doing something for the game.
So that's the background to the e-mail I got from Jens Alfke. He designed a new game with Ricci Adams. The game is called Quäsenbö, a snappy but barely pronouncable title. It's effectively an adaptation of Crazy 8s, but with a nice twist that exploits the Decktet's structure. He posted it at his blog, and I've put a slightly modified version on the Decktet site.